Clinging onto the Earth

Art and poem by Nahom Assefa

Claws clutch the earth, the final clutch to flight,
Soil turned over,
Dust gathered in piles of memory,
No bloom breaks forth,
Only roots tangled in their doubt.

Self-actualization stunted by denial,
A refusal to rise,
Choosing the comfort of the familiar.
Wearing wounds like medals,
Insisting they tell a story,
A story stitched from incompletion,
Where solace is found in numbed pain,
And darkness becomes home.
Fear the light, groping for anything in reach,
Uncaring if it’s a staff or a snake.

Even when grace offers ascent,
Toward the unknown, the foreign,
Fear strikes stillness in your wings.
And the phoenix,
Instead of rising,
Burns itself to ash.